Family history research is so fascinating that it deserves to be shared. Here are one writer's musings and insights about making that process palatable and inviting to others.

24 August 2010

More About Research

From Brigham City, Utah Box Elder News 27 June 1912

Especially when writing personal history, biography, remember to check all records, not just the ones that may provide birth, marriage and death records. Think outside the box. Leslie Huber at the BYU Family History Conference (don't miss Leslie's new book--The Journey Takers) recommends financial records, school records, payment and employment records, records of societies to which your ancestor belonged, and that old favorite--newspaper articles.

Obituaries are always a must--the great-grandpa I'm now writing about had 5 obituaries in different newspapers. Of course some of the information overlapped, but some is different. But the most interesting news article I've ever read was about another great-grandpa and his adventures in his "family benzine buggy." The Box Elder News reports that "the party had such a close call that Mr. Christensen stated yesterday he would have sold the machine for twenty five dollars and a song, if some one had come along and offered it to him, and would have cranked it up to boot." That quote is a golden look into my Great-Grandpa C.N.'s personality as is his exciting auto ride and the family's "Close Call to Death."

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe To

About Me

I love people. I love family history and I like to write. My undergrad work in family sciences and my master's degree in sociology make my research and family history writing even more interesting to me.Our family committee recently published our third 800 page volume of ancestral histories. My father-in-law forgets many things these days, including my name, but he has never forgotten that I'm a "good girl" since I helped him publish his personal history along with that of my deceased mother-in-law.

Our family committee envisions making our work available for download to interested family members on our family websites: MJ and Hazel Christensen and Whitney-Nay Family History. Some of the chapters are already downloadable--The Nay family in Utah and the West and parts of the Christensen book series. We're now working on monthly podcasts and transforming the books into e-books.

Reading, writing and publishing family history is fun and satisfying to me. I'm convinced of the importance of knowing who we are by knowing where we came from. I started this site to share with others what I have learned and am still learning.

I welcome feedback and invite other family historians to share here as well. In the future I will be helping others to publish their own family histories.